95 SCRA 752 (1980)
- DOCUMENTARY STAMP TAX: Rule on Admissibility of Document as Evidence
FACTS:
This case is about the dismissal of a petition for the probate of the notarial will of the late Rogaciano Gabucan on the ground that it does not bear a thirty-centavo documentary stamp. The probate court refused to reconsider the dismissal in spite of petitioner’s manifestation that he had already attached the documentary stamp to the original of the will.
ISSUE:
W/N the probate correct was correct in dismissing the petition on the ground of failure to affix the documentary stamp to the will
HELD:
The Court held that the lower court manifestly erred in declaring that, because no documentary stamp was affixed to the will, there was “no will and testament to probate” and, consequently, the alleged “action must of necessity be dismissed.”
What the probate court should have done was to require the petitioner or proponent to affix the requisite thirty-centavo documentary stamp to the notarial acknowledgment of the will which is the taxable portion of that document. The documentary stamp may be affixed at the time the taxable document is presented in evidence.
